How to Reset an Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard, Mouse or Trackpad (Troubleshooting Pairing and Other Common Problems)

Update: (2018-01-26) If you have a “Apple Magic Keyboard” (without or without built in numeric keypad, introduced in 2015/16) I’d be interested to know if this works for you (it seems it does from reports). The following instructions are fairly generic, but were written relating to the “Apple Wireless Keyboard” from 2009 and 2011 (Use this to help you identify your model). I’ve noted from comments that an increasing number of people still have problems after following these instructions, but don’t specify which keyboard they are using. I’d appreciate it if you can help clarify and I’ll post further updates. It’s likely the firmware was revised in this later edition and it might have resolved the problem, or blocked the ability to reset the keyboard via the power button.

If you are having problems with getting an Apple Wireless Bluetooth keyboard, mouse or trackpad from connecting to your Mac (iMac, Macbook or Mac Pro), you can try this trick. The following mentions the keyboard, but it should work for other wireless devices that have a on/off switch of the contact type (i.e. press on and off, rather than a physical slide switch).

I really appreciate all the feedback I get, even when it doesn’t solve your problem. I’ve tried to expand this article over time to include any other suggestions that might help.

Mouse Keys: If your keyboard is not responding to alpha-numeric keys (letters and numbers), and the arrow keys cause the on-screen cursor to move, then you have inadvertently enabled the Mouse Keys Accessibility feature. Follow the instructions here to disable Mouse Keys.

Is it broken?: If your keyboard/mouse will not connect via Bluetooth, or appears completely unresponsive, then the following instructions may help you resolve the issue. Please bear in mind that your device might have a hardware fault, but if it works fine elsewhere, its likely to be a configuration or pairing issue which can be resolved.

Resetting the Firmware (see note)

NB: Any USB keyboard or mouse can be used if you need to workaround any part of these instructions that requires a functional keyboard or mouse. They are dirt cheap from retailers, or borrow one from a friend (they work on all PC and Mac systems).

Switch off the keyboard by holding down the power button for at least 3 seconds

Click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar

Click on “Set Up Bluetooth Device” or “Open Bluetooth Preferences”

Turn on the keyboard by holding down the power button, BUT DO NOT LET GO OF THE POWER BUTTON. It must be kept held down through the entire process.

The Setup Assistant will find the keyboard, so click the name of the keyboard, and then click on “Continue”. Make sure you are still holding the power button down.

You will be prompted for the Pairing Code. You can now release the power button, type the pairing code on the keyboard and then press return. There will be a slight delay whilst the pairing completes (a few seconds)

The keyboard will now be Paired, and should work as expected (if it produces wrong characters for keypresses you may have the wrong language setting on your Mac, see below).

So just to clarify, the trick is to continually HOLD DOWN THE POWER BUTTON.

Note: I don’t know if this actually resets the firmware, but most Bluetooth devices seem to remember the last connected host device (your Mac) and will try to connect to that out of preference when turned on. It is this that can block attempts to getting it to connect to the Mac of your choice. More on this below.

What if this doesn’t work for you?

Is this the problem you are searching for? As stated above, this is for when you have problems pairing, specifically with a Mac. I don’t have other non-Apple devices I want to pair my keyboard with, so have no idea if the steps outlined above will help you if you are on Windows, Android, Linux or anything else.

There are some generic tips that might point you in the right direction. I don’t wish to point out the obvious, but sometimes in frustration these things can be overlooked.

Are you working with a fresh set of non-rechargeable batteries?

Apple’s keyboards are known not to work well with rechargeable batteries as the voltage they supply is too irregular. Battery life on alkalines is in the order of 6 months plus, so there really isn’t any reason to use rechargeables. Any battery that is providing low voltage or irregular current will result in all sorts of weird behaviour. Don’t assume that batteries fresh out the packet are good, try another to be sure.

Have you unpaired the keyboard with any previously paired Mac, iPhone or iPad?

Apple specifically state this in their instructions, and pairing and connection behaviour is undefined if there is a previously paired machine within communication range (up to 10 metres). If you no longer have the machine, or it is well out of range, you may be able to skip this step, but if you can, remove the pairing from the old machine. On the old machine, just go to System Preferences > Bluetooth and highlight the keyboard you want to pair elsewhere, and click the ‘-‘ at the bottom of the list to remove the pairing. Unfortunately you do need to identify any other paired machines, as you can’t tell the keyboard to forget the pairing that is stored on the old machine. This can be big issue in large offices – perhaps IT took your old machine away, gave you a new one, and then reissued your old machine to someone else, perhaps even on an adjacent floor. If they forget to remove the Bluetooth pairings, this can create all sorts of strife, and of course your co-workers may not be happy for you to go digging around in their machines changing settings they don’t understand.

Is there any other device causing interference?

Bluetooth keyboards use the same 2.4ghz frequency used by Wifi and Cordless telephones, not to mention that you may have numerous other Bluetooth devices within the vicinity, paired with the target machine or with others nearby. Bluetooth is a great technology, but it can’t work miracles when there is a lot of electronic noise nearby. If you can’t eliminate interference, you may have to go back to a corded keyboard.

Are you getting incorrect characters, symbols or non-functional keys when using the keyboard?

Lets face it, tech breaks. Even tech by reputable companies like Apple. The only way to check is to unpair the keyboard with your machine, pair it with another, test, and if it works, unpair and pair again. Something of a pain in practice. Also, there are multiple places on OS X where keyboard behaviour can be modified, i.e. you press a particular key on the keyboard, but some other function occurs on the Mac. You need to check System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources are correct for your locale. Check System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts don’t have incorrect behaviours defined. Individual applications can also modify behaviour, so if you’ve recently installed new software, check there. Also, check System Preferences > Language & Text > Text to see if there are any substitutions that could be causing problems. Use the ‘Restore Defaults’ button where provided to be sure, although bear in mind any legitimate customisations you’ve already made may be lost.

Can you even reset an Apple keyboard?

There is actually no evidence that the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard even supports a reset function. Apple state in their troubleshooting documents that you reset the keyboard by turning it off, then on again. Does that fix the problem outlined above – nope – but the steps above do. Go figure.

As far as Bluetooth technology is concerned, there is no requirement for the device, such as a keyboard, to have any settings that might need resetting. The device can essentially be ‘dumb’. When you make a pairing between a device and its host computer, it is the host the remembers the pairing by noting the hardware identifier supplied by the device during the pairing process. Just because during pairing on an Apple keyboard you type a pairing code onto the keyboard doesn’t mean the keyboard remembers that – it only needs to pass it to the host during the pairing to confirm that you have the correct physical keyboard, in case there are others nearby also in pairing mode.

Whilst this article is titled ‘how to reset…’ I’m not intending to confirm that there is some hidden reset function that Apple forgot to mention. I only use the ‘reset’ word in the title because that is the common term used by people when they want to make something work when all else appears to fail. I spent a fair amount of time trying to resolve this problem for myself, digging through plenty of irrelevant articles before I found what I was looking for. None of them suggested that there was an official, documented (or even undocumented) way of doing a reset on an Apple keyboard.

Now it is apparent that the trick outlined above does seem to do something that just an off/on doesn’t do. That doesn’t mean the Apple keyboard remembers something. There may be some state that is preserved that merely means it doesn’t pair to a new device reliably, but its not clear what it is. If you don’t consider that a reset, then fine, but for all intents and purposes, it is.

Resetting the OS X Bluetooth Device List and the Bluetooth Controller

This is a bit of a last resort, and will affect other Bluetooth connected devices, including your Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, which may have been working fine. Depending on if your keyboard or mouse is currently not working, you will need to use a USB wired keyboard (or alternate Bluetooth keyboard/mouse) to perform these steps, so borrow one from a friend if necessary.

If you follow these instructions, after rebooting you will be asked to setup the Bluetooth keyboard and/or mouse as if you were starting up a new Mac.

NB: This will remove all existing pairing information for Bluetooth devices, so each will need to be reconnected.

You need to have the Bluetooth icon showing in the menu bar. If it is not there, open System Preferences > Bluetooth and enable the option ‘Show Bluetooth in Menu Bar’.

Hold down the Shift and Option keys (‘Alt’ on some keyboards) and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar. Once the menu is showing, release the keys.

Still not getting satisfaction?

I’d love to hear from you. But please, help humanity by taking the time to describe your actual problem, otherwise how on earth is anyone expected to help you. Flaming others isn’t nice. I’ve expanded this article from its original succinct set of instructions in the hope that it sheds more light on the subject. Lets see what happens.

Thanks so much Dave. You have saved my sanity. The keyboard is once more connected to the iMac after having been used with my iPad. I haven’t had this problem before when using the wireless keyboard with either device.Time for aspirin and a lie down in a darkened room to recover!!! Many, many thanks again.

Is this on a Bluetooth keyboard? On a Macbook its not uncommon to touch the trackpad whilst typing, which can cause the cursor position to move on screen. But for a Bluetooth keyboard where you aren’t likely to touch the trackpad if its nearby, it shouldn’t be related to the keyboard.

Random keys on my apple wireless keyboard stopped working all of a sudden, a couple of months back. Tried everything, searched every nook and corner of the interwebs and couldn’t find a solution. Ruled it out as hardware issue/fried chipset and gave up.

Came across this post and thought I would just give it a whirl. Held the power button for a while and that did the trick ! Works flawlessly.

This worked, but only after I uninstalled USB Overdrive. I found another support forum where someone suggested that USB Overdrive could interfere with the pairing of a magic trackpad. I uninstalled USB Overdrive and then followed the instructions here…finally, a successful pairing! Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. I would have returned the trackpad out of sheer frustration!

I have a macbook pro and a mac mini. I have two bluetooth keyboards, one for each. The macbook had problems with it’s keyboard(1), which (the keyboard) is a little older, so I decided to swap them. Since my mac mini is also a little older. I deleted the keyboard(1) from the device list of the macbook pro. (also did this with the mac mini and it’s keyboard(2)). I connected the older keyboard(1) to the mac mini and the newer keyboard(2) to the mac book pro. worked fine for 2 months. Today was a glitch. Keyboard(1) is supposed to be connected to the mac mini, but keeps connecting back to the macbook pro. This keyboard isn’t even listed in the devices under the preferences, but is listed as connected in the bluetooth menu bar. I want to delete the Keyboard(1) from the macbook pro, but how can I when It’s not listed as a device in the BT preferences. Help!

I overcame this by borrowing my next door neighbour’s wired mouse and keyboard to turn bluetooth on again and pair my mouse and keyboard. Bit of a fag though and I bet my neighbour is getting fed up with me. I still have the problem that bluetooth turns off every time I shut down the computer and so no mouse or keyboard until I go next door and grovel……………

Same for me. Do not have access to the original paired machine. Have followed the directions diligently, religiously, carelessly and without any regards to any religious faith. Holding down the power bottom does at least make my Apple keyboard discoverable but no matter how long I hold down the power button it simply will not pair. It just eventually gives me the dreaded warning exclamation mark inside a triangle telling me that it could not pair. Have tried new batteries, no batteries, steam powered batteries, solar batteries and assault and batteries. Nope! Would love to know if there is another way. Thanks to all who have given their advice in an effort to help. Much appreciated.

Sorry to hear thats not working for you. If the machine you thought it used to be paired to is really no longer there, then it can’t be interfering. Are you sure there are no other Apple devices (or non-Apple for that matter) in the vicinity that it might ever have been paired with? It might be reconnecting to those and denying the new pairing. Frustrating I know, but that tends to be what it turns out to be.

Any ideas on how to make a mouse or keyboard forget other devices? I had my mouse paired with an android tablet, and have since forgotten it on the tablet, and I keep getting notifications about it wanting to pair with the tablet again when I reboot my mini into Windows.

Hi I have a magic keyboard for my Mac and I’m now on my second one. For some reason the 789U I OJKLM. keys will not work, the rest of the keyboard works fine. Same problem with both keyboards. Mac is one year old
Gone into system preferences and keyboard shows as being connected and fully charged. Have also checked input sources and text tabs and all seems fine

This solution does not represent the title. This is not resetting the keyboard, or mouse, or trackpad. Does anyone actually know how to reset these devices? My keyboard consistently connects to a different computer than the one I would like to use it on. The solution provided here does not resolve this.

Brett, thanks for the feedback but the title is accurate. These instructions reset the device. In your instance, you need to tell OS X to forget the Bluetooth device so it won’t auto connect to it. Once paired, the device should reconnect to the last machine, but due to signal issues it can connect to any paired device in range.

Go to Bluetooth preferences on the machine you don’t want it to connect to and remove the device from the list. If you do in future want to connect to that machine, you’ll need to re-pair.

Thank you for your response, but I respectfully disagree. These instructions do not reset the bluetooth device, but seem to allow a device to pair when having some kind of difficulty. My situation is different. I work in an environment where there are dozens of Mac computers and I have no idea which this device is actually paired to. It would be very difficult, at best, to allow it to connect and then go to each computer to see if it is the offending one. Using your instructions, my keyboard continued to connect to the wrong computer. I need a way to totally and completely reset the keyboard so that it does not maintain any of its previous pairing information.

Thanks again for your considerate reply and extra detail. I think this comes down to whether you think its the keyboard or the Mac that is remembering the pairing. I think you will find that its the Mac that remembers – the device just presents itself.

When pairing a keyboard, the Mac proposes a passcode that is entered on the keyboard, but the keyboard just uses that to provide verification that it is the same physical keyboard that requested the pairing (not another within the vicinity). The Mac then records the fact that a device with a particular hardware ID is paired so that it doesn’t need to ask again.

If you look at the Apple Support article on Bluetooth pairing (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1809) and look in the section ‘Pairing you Apple Wireless Keyboard with another Mac’, you’ll see that it notes that you must unpair with the original machine if it is within 10 metres before pairing with the new machine. If you do not do this, it will be arbitrary which Mac makes a connection at the next attempt (although the support doc actually say that it is my experience).

The instructions in my article do correctly represent how to reset the bluetooth device, although in reality there is little that this seems to achieve but it does seem to be necessary to overcome certain issues when connection cannot be established. The keyboards do seem to remember something about the last paired machine, which only may be to allow it to make a quicker connection when that machine starts announces its presence. But whatever it remembers it can cause it to have problems connecting later.

Your problem seems to be that you either have a keyboard that is not connecting to the desired machine (and should therefore be reset), or that there is another Mac nearby that it is connecting to out of chance or by choice. By identifying which machine has the erroneous pairing and removing it from the Bluetooth settings, you should be able to keep your keyboard connecting to the desired system.

I hope this info help you, I know that Bluetooth issues can be extremely frustrating because most Bluetooth devices have no ‘user interface’ other than a status LED which is usually less than helpful when you have problems (particularly with Apple devices!)

If you do find that this info is not helpful, please feel free to post your comments with some explanation or alternative solutions so as to help others. This post gets over 2,000 hits per month so this is no doubt a common cause for concern.

Brett,
Why don’t you take the keyboard and the computer you want to pair it with 100 yards away from all the other computers – then you can be sure the keyboard cannot communicate with any of those other computers.
Dave,
Thank you for your painstaking efforts to explain this topic to us all.

Just in case someone comes across this and are wondering the same thing seven months later – actually my problem was having to reset the keyboard. Thanks to this web page, I knew to uninstall the keyboard on BOTH my computers, install new batteries, and then do as Dave suggested. It worked all because I had to reset the keyboard. Thank you!

I’m not sure this author knows the difference between a reset of the keyboard and a repairing of bluetooth…a reset is what you do when you set it back to factory specs, say after you changed the default language.

Shawn, thanks for the reply. It’s not possible to change the language of the keyboard – you can change the input source which correlates with the physical keyboard layout (i.e. position of certain letters and symbols, which varies from country to country). That isn’t a function of the keyboard though, its a function of OS X. The keyboard isn’t aware, or care, about how the OS interpret the keypresses. So these instructions are accurate for resetting a keyboard, and do not cover changing input sources in OS X.

I was having the same problem of not being able to pair my iPad with my Apple wireless keayboard too that I had already paired with it. I couldn’t firgure out for the longest time why my iPad couldn’t see the keyboard anylonger. Then it hit me, I had paired it with my Apple TV and that had canceled out the iPad. As soon as I “Forget” the device it worked on the iPad again. I hope this helps.

Okay. We must need the blog titled “how to Hard reset apple keyboard to factory defaults”. Dave, maybe you have a link? This blog wouldn’t get 2000 hits per month if the title read ‘How to pair a apple device with a mac’, as it should be. I don’t have a mac, any help for PC/Android users? Perhaps leaving the batteries out for 5 mins will HARD reset the keyboard. Maybe if we type the word ‘reset’ 3 times and turn it upside down. Oh. I’m so silly. I’m sure if I take it to the Apple store they’ll give me a fresh one.

Sorry that you and a few others don’t seem to get the solution you want from this article. Perhaps if you try Googling for that article title suggestion you’ll have better luck, as this page doesn’t appear in the search results.

Dave, your article is very helpful and appreciated. And I only found it because I added “reset” to my search query. However, if there exists a true way to factory reset an Apple Keyboard or Mouse it’d be much appreciated. In my case, I’ve got a used mouse (from Goodwill) and a hand-me-down keyboard, both Apple Wireless variety. They work great with GNU/Linux, but there’s one little problem. Somehow, Apple has embedded into the devices the names of the previous owners. I’ve left the batteries out for days, and they still remember, so it’s some sort of flash memory. I know how to make a bluetooth alias so that it looks like the device has a different name on my computer, but no magic I’ve found actually clears the names from the hardware’s memory. I know, not a big deal, but it’s an annoyance that would be fixed if we could do a genuine factory reset.

Thanks for this. Also worked to fix connection issue with a 1st gen iPad. Had been connected fine in the past, but along the way the Bluetooth connections seem to get corrupted. For the iPad, the only difference in instructions is to click on the iPad’s Settings icon (the grey ‘gear’ symbol), then click on ‘Bluetooth,’ (make sure bluetooth is on, btw). There is no “set up bluetooth device” selection, just a list of currently or previously connected devices. Likely your Apple Keyboard may not be evident here. If it is, you may want to click on arrow to the right and select “Forget this Device” in the menu that opens if you’ve been unable to connect. Then, do as instructed here, hold down power button continuously on keyboard that has been shut off. The keyboard should now appear on list, (on mine it shows in black type whereas other devices appear in blue type.) After you select it, there will not be a “Continue” command, but pairing window should just appear. OK now to let go of button, enter the pairing code, and it shoud show “Connected” to the right of the Apple Keyboard device on list. It may say, “So-&-so’s Keyboard” with your name unless it’s a brand new keyboard. Thanks.

My husband and I tried everything we could think of, even things I read in the “iMac for Dummies” (I’m not very computer-savy)! Nothing was working, tried new batteries, found the power button on the keyboard, etc. For 2 weeks, I couldn’t really use my computer, just my phone. In desperation, I kept trying ideas from websites–and finally found yours on my phone. I tried it 4 or 5 times trying to type in the code, as my keyboard finally was recognized. Then the computer said it didn’t connect– until my husband restarted the computer. Wow! It worked, and I am using it now. Thank you!

Hi. I’ve had my wireless keyboard since 2010. It has been working properly. I use it with my iPad. It is the late 2009 model with only two batteries. Well, today it decided not to pair with my iPad. First it would display the name of the Keyboard in the tablet, but not connect. Then I umpaired them, turned all Bluetooth devices of and tried to pair it again with my iPad. Nothing. Then the keyboard’s name disappeared and now it is just label as Keyboad. Well, Iv’e been reading forums for hours. It seems that my keyboard behaves ike it’s paired to some goshtly device that doesn’t exists. When I turn it on, the LED won’t blink as when it is umpaired and now the other devices are only able to see the keyboard when it’s being turned on. No device (iPhone, iPad, MacBook) can now pair to it. I’ve replaces the batteries, fresh, new, and not rechargable; I’ve pressed down the power button, but it seems that it is paired to something… Even if I’m in the middle of nowehere, with no bluetooth devices on, the thing thinks its paired to a ghostly MAC. I cannot reset it.

UPDATE: WHILE WRITTING THIS, THE PROBLEM WAS MAGICALLY SOLVED. IT HAPPENS THAT MY COLLEAGUE PAIRED HIS IPHONE TO MY KEYBOARD ONE DAY AND HAD FORGOTTEN… I SWEAR… HE WAS THERE WITH ME IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWEHERE WHERE I WAS TESTING THE KEYBOARD…. AND NOW THAT I’VE DECIDED TO TEST AGAIN IN THE OFFICE, I TOUCHED THE PLAY KEY AND HIS MUSIC COMES ON!!! DUDE!!!! IT WAS ACTUALLY PAIRED… /()($·/=)Q=()$(Q·!!!!!

I have an iMac and the bluetooth mouse and keyboard stopped responding last week. At first the bluetooth connection was dropping and reconnecting every 30 seconds or so. When I was able to connect I went through the PRAM and SMC reset and that didn’t fix it. Now they will not connect at all. I went and bought a USB mouse and keyboard thinking it was just a bluetooth issue but those do not work either. I’ve read that reinstalling the OS might fix it but I had a CD in the drive when this started and I can’t get it out. Hope someone might have some ideas on what might fix this. This thing is less than 2 years old and the entire reasoning behind purchasing it was that the Mac would last much longer than a PC! Hope I wasn’t wrong about that.

You should use a USB keyboard in order to do a PRAM reset, bluetooth keyboards don’t connect early enough in the boot sequence. If you cannot get a USB keyboard or mouse to work then its possible that you have a hardware failure on the USB controller – the Bluetooth controller is connected via USB in many Macs, so a failed USB controller will likely disable bluetooth also.

Wow! Thank you for the tip that rechargeable batteries won’t do the trick. Have used Apple everything since 1988, including purchasing the Apple batteries and charger last December. Wow. Yours is the explanation for my mouse suddenly jumping aimlessly. I feel scammed by Apple, and that is something I’ve never experienced before. Truly disappointed in Apple. Thank you, Dave, for your help. (installed charge rechargeable Apple batteries….the mouse is still jumping around…difficult to select “submit”)

Lisa, thanks for the reply. Whilst Apple obviously make their own battery charger, and therefore condone the use of rechargeable, there has always been an issue with power quality from rechargeable batteries. Quality makes a difference, and no reason to suspect that Apple are using anything inferior, but when the life on alkalines is as good as it is, I’ve never seen a good reason to use rechargeables.

But, my keyboard still doesn’t work. Some keys are not responding. I tried to pair it with my iPad and the same keys were not working. So, I guess my keyboard did not like it when I cleaned it up with Windex…

My keyboard was paired with the ipad as well as with my macbook pro. Suddenly it stopped working with the ipad. The ipad still seemed to be paired with it (no keyboard shows up on the touchscreen) but I cannot seem to write using the wireless keyboard anyway. I did as you instructed and removed the pairing from the macbook pro, tried to reset the pairing on the ipad but still not working.
Re-pairing it with macbook pro makes me conclude that there does not seem to be problems with (fresh) batteries, but something else is preventing it from pairing with ipad. Any ideas?

I would remove the pairings with all devices, then just add ack to the ipad.

If you go to the Bluetooth settings on the ipad, it does tell you if the device is paired. If the keyboard is not popping up it suggests something is connected, but maybe not wht you think. It’s easy to get frustrated by this stuff!

Hi, interestingly, I tried the holding of the power button during the pairing a few weeks ago as the ‘fault’ appears to be that the pairing light goes off after only a few seconds thus disconnecting from the PC before pairing is completed. It didn’t work for me then.
Read your article today, tried it again and…..it now works.

When I started my imac the password window opened but my keyboard is not getting connected my mouse is conected and the key board is not connected with any other device. No USB is installed . I bought my imac just 3weeks ago . Please tell how I will connect it

For me, after an OSX update, I could not log into my computer because my mac mini would not pair with my mac BT keyboard (like the one in the picture at the top of this post). No matter how long I held the power button, the green light just kept flashing, and anyway, I was unable to go into the settings on the computer, because I could not log in.

In the end, after some experimentation – I tried to take the batteries out, and put them back in – I tried to reset the computer – it seems like what worked was to take the battery cap, hold down the power button, and replace the battery cap whilst doing so. After that, the keyboard immediately paired. I don’t see why this would work, perhaps it was just removing the battery cap once more which did it, but that’s what happened.

My wireless keyboard and mouse stopped working at the same time. The batteries are fine and I tried your trick here but it didn’t work. This apple keyboard and mouse came with my 27″ imac and even picks up fine on my MacBook Air and iPhone. Neither show up at all on my imac. When I tell the bluetooth on my imac to discover the new devices it just searches over and over and never finds anything. It appears as though my bluetooth is malfunctioning…is there a way to reset it? Update it? Fix it? Thanks!

Jared sorry to hear of the problems. Make sure you remove each device from the Air and ipad as well as the iMac before trying the above trick, or they could be preventing the pairing. If this fails, try pairing any other Bluetooth device with the iMac to establish if the Bluetooth is faulty. You could try a PRAM reset on the iMac if you have a wired keyboard to hand, but not sure this would help, maybe worth a try.

I had this problem. Updated to Mavericks, and first time I rebooted, the Bluetooth Assistant tried to pair my bluetooth wireless keyboard and with my iMac but it said my keyboard was not “discoverable.”

I couldn’t fuss with anything because I couldn’t login without a KB. Tried various times to reboot the computer to fix problem but nothing worked. Replaced batteries in KB. Didn’t help.

Not really very technical so figured I would get rid of all accessories and distractions (near by cell phone, etc).

The I took the batteries out of the keyboard. Shut the iMac off for a minute… then turned it back on. It started looking for a BT keyboard… couldn’t find anything. After a minute I put the batteries back in the KB, and I guess it was the only possible thing around to pair with so it did.

My iMac recognized my keyboard, but the functions keys were performing tasks other than their assigned functions. The settings indicated that I had more “F” keys than the keyboard actually has. I tried this suggestion and it fixed the problem. Thanks!

Thank You VERY MUCH for this! This should be on apple’s website. Wish this page came up higher in search results too. I spent way to much time visiting webpages (Apple’s included) that said a lot of nothing….nothing relevant, anyway. Thanks again!

I have a WIRED keyboard, (mac mini 10.8.3) with a Bluetooth mouse, which has been working fine for 6 months. All of a sudden the mouse just ‘disappeared’, so I plugged in a wired mouse, went to System Prefs > Mouse>set up Bluetooth mouse, it just aint’ there under available devices. (I put new batteries in the BT mouse)
Any suggestions?

I guess its possible that the Bluetooth controller on the Mac is no longer working. You could try seeing if it can see any other Bluetooth devices (mobile phone perhaps?). It’s also possible a PRAM reset might help, so try that too. Finally, go to System Report and look at the detailed hardware info for the BT device to see if there is any clue there.

Seems to work right up till I enter the code. Then there is either no reaction to clicking return or I get the message, “pairing attempt was unsuccessful . Click continue to try again.” Nothing happens when I try again.

When I’ve seen this problem before its either because you still have the old pairing on the Mac, or it might be paired with another device still. Go to Bluetooth preferences on all devices that you may have paired with (or own) and remove any existing pairings, then try again, noting the trick with the power button.

My problem, I think, is particularly unique, and unfortunately NOT solved by your suggestion. I’m trying to pair my wireless keyboard with a Mac Mini it has successfully connected to in the past.

However, in the past it connected to the Mac through a USB bluetooth extender. I had that setup in my previous home, because the Mac Mini was inside a big steel built-in Home Theater rack that caused the built-in bluetooth to not be able to detect my bluetooth mouse and keyboard reliably, especially not if I wasn’t close to the Mac. With the extender plugged in the back I was able to move the bluetooth signal outside the track and into the room. With that setup I was able to use the keyboard and mouse without any problems from anywhere in the room.

At the time, it was a HUGE PAIN to set that up. Somehow the Mac Mini stores the information for the internal bluetooth in a different location than for the bluetooth extender, and this caused all kinds of weird issues. I had to make sure that the devices were NOT paired with the internal bluetooth before trying to pair it with the external USB extended bluetooth. And what really added to the confusion is that the Apple UI only shows the bluetooth settings for the bluetooth device that is active (internal or external), but does NOT indicate that to the user in any way. Nowhere (if I remember correctly) is there an overview that explicitly indicates: there are two bluetooth devices on this computer, these are the devices paired with those, and this is the one that is currently active! Ultimately through guesswork and informed trial and error we were able to get it to work.

Anyway, now I have moved into a different setup, I no longer need the bluetooth extender. In fact, I lost it in the move. So, now I am stuck in this situation:

Somewhere in the guts of the Mac memory it knows this machine is already paired with my keyboard

NOWHERE in the UI does it indicate this; the keyboard is not listed anywhere in the UI, so I cannot unpair it.

When I hold the power button on my wireless keyboard (yes, with brand new batteries in it) it simply comes on, does not blink, and no matter for how long I hold that power button, nothing in the UI detects this keyboard as wanting to pair 🙁

What do you think? Does my suspicion of what is going make any sense? Or would it be that my keyboard broke at the exact same time as I moved?

I’m not sure what to do. At this point I have spent so much time trying to get this to work that I think it’s more cost effective for me to just buy a brand new keyboard :-(((

You could try deleting Bluetooth Preferences. There might be two, one in the main Library folder:

{HD}/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

And one in the user folder:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Bluetooth.plist

Delete them both, the completely shutdown the machine (not just a restart) before booting again. You should then be prompted to start pairing again.

I’d make sure you have a USB keyboard and noise to hand in case you can’t pair the Bluetooth devices – at least you’ll be able to navigate the Mac. Just borrow ones from a friend, and from a PC will be fine.

If that fails, do the same again, but this time, on restart, do a PRAM reset (web search for the specific instructions). Go through the cycle at least twice before releasing the keys to allow the normal boot up.

The Mac probably stores the ID’s at least of the initial keyboard and mouse paired with the system, because that normally happens when you first setup the machine. The PRAM reset should clear that.

Trouble with key board not responding. First I changed the batteries, then I went to the web and added a small piece of aluminum foil, didn’t change anything. All along I can use the delete function but no keys to type. Found your site, was able to generate a new bluetooth code and resync my blue tooth, at least that was the message I got.

Nothing has changed. I’ve turned the whole computer on and off and really don’t know what else to try. What does it tell you that I can delete from my keyboard but nothing else?

I had problems to reconnect the bluetooth apple key board back to my iMac after recharging the batteries. this was the first time this happened: in the past after recharging & replacing the batteries the key board reconnected in a twiffy. Not this time though!
i tried your version by holding down the on-off button of the k-b during the whole set-up: no connection.
so i removed the wireless k-b from the bluetooth list and restarted the procedure: bang! this time i got through the connection protocol.
so with a little further fine-tuning, your method proved to work.
have a nice day & trip,
Marc

My keyboard and mouse pairing will only last for about 30 minutes before the connection is lost. I’ve had to reboot my Imac every time this happens. Dave, would your suggestion above be an option? Thanks

Marc – Definitely would recommend deleting the existing pairing, then setting it up again and using the ‘hold power button’ trick. Also consider if you have a strong local source of interference – other Bluetooth devices, 2.4Ghz wifi devices or digital cordless phones. They all use similar frequencies, so another device could be causing the keyboard and mouse to loose their connection with the iMac.

Hello-
I just turned my iMac back on after not using it for months and it looks like my keyboard and trackpad are blinking green which I think means it’s not paired. But without a keyboard or mouse I can’t get past the home screen! I feel comepletely stuck and I don’t understand how they can stop working and therefore make your computer completely inaccessible! I changed the batteries and tried the reset and still they look to pair but without logging in I am stuck 🙁 welcome all tips!!!! Thank you!!!

Yes very annoying. You may need to borrow a USB keyboard (or buy one, they cost as little as $5, any will do), just so you can get booted, then remove the pairing and try again. You may need to do a PRAM reset as well.

I seem to have an unique issue where Num keys 1-9 are not working. Every other keys are fine.
Strangely the Keyboard got unpaired from the Mac by itself & now can’t pair it back as number keys not working, any suggestions? Currently using a USB keyboard,

I seem to remember having a problem when pairing where, in my case, the enter key was not working, so maybe its a glitch in the setup. I’d make sure its not shown as a paired device, reboot, then try pairing again using the tip outlined in the article about holding the power button. I think that has worked for me every time.

Very old keyboard would not pair with slightly younger Mac Mini running Mavricks, though it worked earlier. Finally, I attached an old wired keyboard, turned Bluetooth OFF, restarted the computer, and turned Bluetooth ON. Keyboard was immediately recognized. Magic?

it did not work for me as my iMac i7 2013 still dose not see my key board on boot but once in the OS the key board works fine but still can’t figure out the problem i looked at things that may interfere with it but surely if there was any interference it would stop it working all together but one in the oOS the bluetooth keyboard works fine the mac just don’t see it on boot any one got any idea’s ?

Came across your blog post. My aluminium (3-battery) keyboard packed up and decided not to connect to anything at all. The ‘hold button’ trick got me a little further — the keyboard assistant briefly showed the name of the keyboard but reverted to ‘no keyboard found’ when it actually tried to pair. Any other variation and just nothing appears on the Mac at all. (MacBook Pro, mid 2010, 10.9.2). I’ve also tried pairing it to my iPad but that doesn’t even see it. Far as I know, my MBP is the only thing this keyboard has ever been paired with. 🙁

At least 2 x my keyboard & mouse just quit, monitor fine.
Since I can’t use mouse or anything I have to unplug computer and then everything works fine again.
Will definitely try your advice of holding down the power button, but my mouse doesn’t work, so do the same with the mouse too? Or do one then the other? Lastly, how do we do it with the mouse, since there is no power button to hold down rather a click?
Many thanks!!

The power button trick only works for those devices that have a contact power button. Some of the mice have a slide power switch, so no good. But the rest of the advice on the page regarding general Bluetooth troubleshooting holds true, so be sure to check those out too.

Thank you! So should this happen again I will try your trick, and if it works great, but will it make the mouse come back too? If not, how can I reboot computer with just keyboard?
I’m hoping/thinking that if your trick works for keyboard, then it might make the mouse ‘come alive’ again too.
Just curious, if one has to keep doing this, resetting–it can’t be good, no?
Some underlying other issue perhaps or just buy a new keyboard?
And again, thank you so much!

Try the NVRAM reset shortcut on startup (keep holding the keys until the Mac restarts) as that can cause problems with Bluetooth config).

Obviously not good if it keeps happening, but likely to be a glitch in the configuration or local interference, which if you follow the tips you may be able to diagnose. Probably not either the keyboard or mouse if it affects both, so maybe the Mac’s Bluetooth controller failing, which on most models can be replaced if necessary.

p>My wireless mouse is not working, but my keyboard is. I can’t click anything on my Apple Mac screen because of a non-working mouse. I don’t know what to do and I have tried replacing the batteries, it still doesn’t work. If you have some sort of solution for my problem please email me your answer. Thankyou

Ok, I have the strangest problem and I tried your suggestion but failed. I am not sure if you can help me or not, but here goes.
My imac has stopped responding to my wireless keyboard, but only in my account. SOME keys work 1% of the time! and only after smashing them.
Also, the ‘right click’ function of my wireless mouse has stopped working.

However, everything is fine when I log into the guest account, and I can type in my password at the start up screen.

Any chance that you have some utility installed that is meant to be ‘enhancing’ the keyboard and mouse, but that is no longer working correctly? That likely wouldn’t be installed on the guest account. Try creating another normal user account temporarily, and see what behaviour you get there. Also, check your users login items to see if there is anything loading at startup that might cause a problem, and also see if you have any addition System Preferences panes that are keyboard/mouse related, other than the standard ones.

Works great everytime. But then every time I turn my MBP off for more than a few hours it gets unpaired and I have to do the whole “hold down button” trick again. Same deal for both keyboard and magic trackpad.
Any thoughts on that?
Thank you in advance.

Are you sure its getting unpaired? Does the pairing still appear in the OS X Bluetooth preferences, but its just not connecting? It sounds more like the devices are perhaps connecting to another host which they’ve been paired with before. If so, you’ll need to remove them from the other devices pairing preferences or they’ll keep trying to connect.

Hi Dave
I do exactly your guide. But when the code appear, the numbers doesn´n black althought i type correct. But when i type different number, the code is black. Return is blue but i can´t press it. The keyboard doesn´t pair. What i should do?

I have a sort of unique problem. First off, I want to disclose this I’m running Yosemite right now and that may be the culprit. Pretty much, I’m having trouble pairing my keyboard with my mac. It pairs for a while and then stops working. When I try to remove the device, it gets removed but when I enter discovery mode again, it doesn’t give me the option to pair it, but only to reconnect to it. When I remove the device it should not reconnect unless I pair it although it won’t give me the option to pair it. When I try to reconnect, that won’t work either. Again, it may be Yosemite, but I just wanted to ask to see if you had any idea.

Obvious the beta software it could be a bug, but seems to just be the same issue that affects earlier versions. If the ‘hold power’ trick outlined in the article doesn’t do it, try the other suggestions, particularly regarding fresh Alkaline batteries and removing interference. Also, take a look in the Console logs to see if there is any hint as to why the keyboard disconnects. Good luck!

For me, I couldn’t get the keyboard into pairing mode unless I held down the power button while taking out the batteries and putting them back in again. After that, I had to release the power button when the keyboard’s LED started to dual-flash, BEFORE clicking “Pair” on the Mac, or the pairing would fail.

Anyway, this led me in the right direction to solve my problem, while all other places I found couldn’t help me at all. Thanks!

RE:apple wireless keyboard, this is a first time issue in 5 years ..
a— starts off with bluetooth not found when at desktop only.
–.. > Fix by going to preference and turning on bluetooth.
b— Wireless keyboard working and i get notification is disconnected. BUT IT NOT.
???/ System preference select keyboard and hold the power key down and go thru
all the reset procedures, i get notification unable recognize keyboard and defualts to Japanese.
c go back to desk top selected text edit and start typing key board is working all characters are
US recognized. Then i went into preferenceds selected keyboard internal to macbook and try to use change keyboard, it DOES not recognize the Internal keyboad , but it too like the wireless is working, Use lithium double aa and triple a battery because they last longer..
HKaufman ,,,,

My issues is I can’t CLICK on anything because I don’t have a working mouse to click on anything! I found a WIRED keyboard so I could at least navigate the screen and wake the sleeping Mac, but now the mouse is not recognized and I can’t seem to get it to pair because everything requires you to click on something to get it to work. I am on my lap top now searching for solutions.

I’m attempting to pair it to a MS Surface 2, which I know was not part of your article, but i thought I’d ask anyway. My Surface 2 detects the keyboard and knows it by name, but the pairing process always fails. I never get the code. It just gives an error message stating that it couldn’t pair with the keyboard and that I should try again.

Are you familiar with these old style keyboards? Is there a key combo that acts as the power button that I can hold down while it tries to pair?

after two days of testing and trying to make a BT keyboard work on my Mac mini I found your description. THANKS!!! That is the solution I was looking for. Holding down the Power-Button until the pairing-windows appears was the solution!

I just turned on my new IMac and couldn’t type in my password t get into the computer, a messages comes up There isn’t a keyboard connected, the key board has the flashing light on, Attempting to connect spins and then says no keyboard, and keeps saying make sure your keyboard is discoverable …. what does that mean…. thanks

Sounds like your cleaning might have damaged the keyboard. If the tricks in the article don’t help, I would in the first place buy a cheap USB keyboard (usually less than $10) so that you can get working again, then look at getting the keyboard checked.

Thank-you so much! I was having trouble pairing my ‘old’ wireless keyboard to my new mac air, and I followed your steps which involved holding down the keyboard power. At first they did not work, then I entered a custom code, and I got a ‘could not connect’ error, so I gave up, released the power button and clicked continue – then like magic I got the request to enter the new code, and it worked. : )
Laurie

Thank you! This worked for my Apple wireless mouse. There is not a power button to hold down (it has an on/off switch), but depressing the mouse pad several seconds during the setup process caused it to pair when nothing else worked. Many thanks to you and Dr. Google for sending me to your page.

After an hour of failing to connect an wireless keyboard I found your instructions. Apple should be paying You for this service, since they can’t seem to post these specific instructions in any easy to find place, if at all.

Thanks, I tried a lot of other ways to pair my keyboard with an iMac, MacBook Pro and iPhone and all failed to pair. Your tip was my last effort before accepting that I would just have to buy a new keyboard and IT WORKED! Thank you very, very much!

Worked for me! The only problem I faced when connecting both the keyboard (done first) and trackpad ((done second) was that as long as the keyboard was turned on, the trackpad would not show up in the devices list (I guess they looked identical to the PC). After connecting them once, they work simultaneously.

My iMac wireless mouse’s cursor seems to have gone to a halt..! Not able to move the cursor, though it’s right click is still working and Bluetooth options shows the mouse as “connected”. Tried everything to make it move, from a fully charged new set of batteries to cleaning up of the shells and mouse..nothing is working out for this one. I am clueless about resetting the bluetooth settings without a mouse.. Please do comment…
Thanks,
Soorsj S

I have tryed to follow your advice, but i cannot se how to ask my imac to forget the keybord. Only how to dissconnect. (Its in danish lay-out).
I have the same problem as a few others here, that the keybord is connected, but some of the keys doesnt repond. Ive tryed to connect the keybord to my iphone, and its the same there. (But i can make the iphone forget the keybord, which i cannot on the imac 27
Mecanical failure ? (Ps no i did not cleaned it. Problem occured after a restart).
Best Lars

When in Bluetooth preferences, it shows a list of known devices. It may say its currently connected, and there is an X to the right that allows you to disconnect. Once disconnected, the X will allow you to remove/forget the device.

If the keyboard is failing with particular keys, and you find that when connected to a different device (like iPhone) that the same physical keys fail, then probably you have a defective keyboard. Even Apple kit can go wrong!

Thanks Dave :-)))
It worked, but i had to go through a few more menues before the x appered.
I suppose different lay-out. Computer is set to danish, the keyboard is Catalan and Apple is American. So of course a lot of things can go wrong.

After that, i tried, just for fun, to connect again to my iPad, and now it worked here too ???
My iMac and my iPhone cannot “see”each other (meterthick walls), and i only moved the keybord.
So some kind of memory the keyboard must have.
If not this is a little to magic.

Hi Dave, I hope you can advise.
We have an Imac that is nearly 3 years old. It sits happily in the kitchen making movies, playing music and searching the internet, it has quite a nice life apart from frequent attacks by a 8 and 9 year old. Yesterday I came home to find my iTunes library playing, I did not recall turning it on before I left, but the music was good so I paid little attention. Later that day the imac started making noises like someone was typing and the problem worsened to constant error noises and the screen flitting around various boxes. The keyboard was non responsive. So I shut everything down, turned off the keyboard, changed the batteries and restated. Still no keys working as pressed but the Imac responding to some connection as the typing and error noises restarted.
I am not super technical, but we have owned apples since out first tangerine imac many years ago.
The keyboard is paired, I have tried to unpair to pair with my iPad, but the keyboard seems not to type the code required to pair with the iPad. I have reconnected it to the imac but it keeps asking for the code to be input, yet in system preferences it says it is connected to the wireless keyboard. So I really just wanted your advice, has the keyboard died or is there something I can do?
Many thanks
Sarah

Thanks for staying active on the comments for this thread. I’m not sure if you could figure out my problem, since I’ve tried almost every suggestion on the Internet to no avail, including this one. My Macbook can recognize the Bluetooth connection from my Mac keyboard, but it refuses to pair. When given a passcode, I try to enter the code, but nothing happens. Apple seems to think it is a hardware problem, but what do you think?

I then tried to check if the bluetooth was actually working so attempted to pair with my phone (android note 2). During the paring process my phone found the mouse and then once i chose that the mac and phone pair my mouse was seen by the mac and paired with no trouble.

so, try pairing with something else at the same time. it worked for me!

Thank you for saving my day! Couldn’t figure out why my wireless keyboard stopped working. Tried everything and was ready to throw it out and then I came across your simple solution of holding down the power button while pairing. Voila! It worked! Thank you!

Thanks very very much. I had sold my previous iMac but had retained the earlier keyboard (which, due to an oversight, I’d forgotten to unpair from the sold Mac). Was tearing out my hair trying to pair it with new iMac and was even considering buying a new Apple Wireless Keyboard (or the IOGear Multimedia Keyboard) when your solution came along. Saved me money and further frustration…

Thanks so much for the tip about rechargeable batteries, I would have never thought of that. Now my trackpad is behaving correctly. Soon, the clumps of hair that I have pulled out trying to diagnose this problem will start to grow back!

HI Dave, I have recently upgraded to OS X Yosemite. Until this morning , my Mac Word worked firn, but suddenly I cannot type anything. Space bar and Tb bar wrks, but no letters/numbers. They do work in other programmes such a s Excel, etc

If the keyboard works in other applications, then the problem seems to be an incompatibility with the Mac Word version you are using. Have you checked to see if there are known issues with Yosemite, or whether patches/upgrades are available?

Thanks Dave. The second reboot worked the trick. I’m not sure where the glitch happened, but there must have been some restriction in either a document or Preferences setup. I have not found anything (yet) of similar nature in the Yosemite community. Regards. Paul

This is not working.
I don’t have the keyboard where you can just hold the button. It’s more of I have to flip the switch for the keyboard to turn on or off.
Your methods are lame. They are good if you are talking and have the right keyboard but I don’t. Which is why I’m saying that method in particular is lame. It is stupid beyond compare especially when you don’t have the right keyboard. Please help me community and Dave. I am sorry that I sound mean and all but I really am not mean when I know what I am doing. Please help me Dave or the community. In the meantime I’ll try to figure it out myself. Please help soon. I have to leave at 3ish and it is 12:13 right now.
Sincerely,
-Computern

Sometimes you just need to work very carefully through the options I describe, if you make a tiny mistake it won’t work. Are you sure that the keyboard works (have you tried pairing with something else?)

The title says these instructions apply to mice as well as a keyboard, yet I can’t figure out how to hold down some button while powering up the mouse. I’d love to have mouse-specific instructions; let me tell you why.

It seems the mouse has a list of devices it tries to connect to. When I power up my mouse, it attempts to connect to a device I once connected to — my phone. My phone has “forgotten” the device. When I power up the mouse, a box shows up on my phone helpfully suggesting would I like to connect this mouse.

The mouse is not trying to connect to the laptop that I have paired and unpaired with.

Since the mouse has apparently remembered the phone, I want it to forget & reset, and there must be a way to do that. If you could share that, point to a solution or something…. that would be great! Because I can’t follow the keyboard instructions on the mouse; there’s now separate power button.

Hi!
I am writing to you from my wireless keyboard – thank’s to you! As my old one was without the letter “t” due to my children’s bless for having snacks and playing games at the same time, I am so graTeful for your TuTorial. Have a pleasant day!
/Åsa

Thanks, it worked. The ultimate work around however is to go onto Amazon and buy a USB keyboard and a USB hub for 20 bucks per and other such devices and then locate every bluetooth mouse, trackpad and keyboard in your house and throw them in the trash. Your life and blood pressure will improve instantly. Do not recycle them to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. You will just be passing on the problems. Destroy them for the good of mankind.

Thank you!! I have also paired my keyboard to apple tv. Because of this, I lost the connection to my mac. I have to unpair and unplug the apple tv for my keyboard to be paired to my mac again.
Thanks again.

After reading many threads in the apple forum and trying multiple things with no success; I found this page. Thank you! holding the power button down through the whole set up cleared up my problem. Many thanks for taking the time to post this info!!

Awesome! I just got a new computer but still have my old one in my office. I never thought about the possibility of interference. This is the first time that Apple support has not been able to help me, but you were! Thanks, Dave. I never would have been able to figure this out on my own.

I had this problem and improved it with a hair dryer! The fix here did not work but I figured that it was caused by high humidity. So took out the batteries and gave it some gentle heat with the hair dryer. This brought the keys back for a bit then I had to do it again. It is not perfect yet and may need some more heat/drying time but this shows up that it is a contact issue with 6 keys in my case.

like many of your other replies, i have had endless misery with my 27″iMac since upgrading to Yosemite. as a lifelong mac user, i’ve almost reached my breaking point. i had to lug my machine into a genius bar, after 2 days of agony, and after they ‘fixed’ the problem, i came home to find my wireless mouse, keyboard and trackpad simply would not pair.

your advice worked like a charm. you need to farm out your knowledge to the apple store folks. they seem to have lost their mojo….

Like so many others, I spent hours trying to get my keyboard paired with my Macbook with no success. Then I came across a link to this page and hey presto, it works. I don’t know you from Adam, but just to say thanks for sharing the info. Good karma is headed your way 🙂

Confirmed, your suggestion to continually hold the power button is the key.
I’ve yet to find any official Apple site or expert make a similar recommendation.
All suggestions are “happy day” guidance that ends with the expectation of success.
Thanks for being correct and thorough.

I was going crazy trying to get my keyboard to pair. My keyboard is even older than this post, so I wasn’t sure if the hardware had changed. I finally found that my keyboard was connected to a nearby iPad, which is why it was not responding to any of my laptops. Aaaaahhhhr!

After several hours of trying, I almost gave up…whoever alerted us that the previous pairing with another device in the vicinity could be the reason for connection difficulties has my sincere thanks. I had forgotten having previously hooked up with my iPad. Once I had disconnectd my keyboard from the iPad, connecting the keyboard to my iMac proceeded without any problems at all. Thank you!!!

Thanks for the advice I followed the instructions it took a couple of goes but it worked for me it must be holding the power button in that’s done the trick this was a couple of days ago and its still working you have to make sure to delete the keyboard before trying to reset it

Hello Dave, and many thanks for your notes. It appears I’m having the same difficulties as everyone reports, except your ‘reset’ approach does not appear to work for me. I’m using a late 2009 iMac running OS X Yosemite, and attempting to pair a used Apple Wireless Keyboard I purchased from someone in Southern California, several hundred miles away. My wireless trackpad pairs flawlessly. My iMac and iPad Air both “recognize” the Apple Wireless Keyboard, but when I attempt to pair, the keyboard is unresponsive, even when trying your ‘hold the power button down’ approach. A pairing code appears on the iMac, but when I press the respective keys nothing happens (the blue highlighting the code figure to enter will not advance to the next when pressed). I’ve tried entering the code anyway (despite the apparent unresponsiveness of the keyboard) and pressed ‘return,’ without success. The iMac invariably returns the message “Pairing failed.” I get the same result when attempting to pair the keyboard to my iPad, which similarly ‘recognizes’ the keyboard but the keyboard will not respond. I’m still convinced this is a software or setting problem as described by so many, but the reset solution just isn’t working for me. Do you have any other ideas? Have I missed something? (Yes, I’m using fresh batteries, and yes, I’m holding down the ‘power’ button when turning the keyboard on until I receive a pairing code.)

If the keyboard is new to you, I would suspect that it is faulty. Perhaps the person you obtained it from did not realise this. I would try pairing with another computer (see if a friend can help), if you get the same problem then it almost certainly the keyboard at fault.

My wireless keyboard and track pad work fine. However, I purchased a number keypad when we bought our MAC and it worked fine and all of a sudden has stopped working. Its the kind that connects to the keyboard. I have changed out batteries, made sure it was turned on, etc. Nothing. When I connect it to my keyboard and press the button on the end, a little green light comes on on the key board but goes off almost immediately.

Sorry, I wasn’t sure if you meant you now have a new keypad or trying to fix the old one. I’m not familiar with these keypads – does it need pairing independently from the keyboard? Try the same process as mentioned in the article.

Thank you! This worked! The key was holding down the power button until it was found. It did take several minutes. I did remove the Keyboard from my list (it said not connected) but then the system found it right away and I was able to pair again. Thanks again! You saved me so much time and frustration.

My backspace key just stopped to work during the night. i tryied all stuff to fix like reset stuff but still the same. i also tried with other device and it dont work too. anything you think i can do? thanks

I must say thank so so much for your cooperation with me to reach to fantastic result with my deletd wireless keybord…
I restore connection with my keyboard via instruction you have gave me.
Thank you respectfully.
May Ayoub

Dave – thank you for this website and your efforts! My wireless mouse stopped working three days ago. I did everything I could find on the Apple site and decided to visit the local Apple store to see what was up, thinking one of my kids probably dropped the wireless mouse and broke it. Being Saturday and not knowing that you had to schedule an appointment, I left the store without being helped and having wasted 1.5 hours of time. Returning home I found the wireless keyboard had stopped as well. After 3 hours of troubleshooting and online searching, I found your site. The SMC reset and your directions at the top of this page did the trick!!! Wireless mouse and keyboard are now working. I have a 2012 iMac 1333 MHz with 4 GB running OS 10.7.5. Thank you, JP

Thank you a lot for this tutorial!
My trackpad stopped working while my keyboard works fine. The trackpad could be found in the bluetooth settings, I clicked on connect and the I had to confirm the pairing. Then the trackpad was connected for a split second and then the pairing confirmation showed up again. Never ending loop.

Your trick was the solution. Connecting to the trackpad and pairing while holding down the power button got it paired and working again 🙂 Awesome!

I am in a lab, with other nearby labs. Though most computers don’t use bluetooth, sometimes students turn it on. I found my situation was similar to your description. Somehow a lab computer had paired to my keyboard. I couldn’t re-pair mine until I tracked down teh lab computer and deleted my keyboard from it. What a pain. I sure with Apple would build in a reset to teh keyboard.
Thanks for your help. I wouldn’t have been able to track it down without your hints.

Yep. Sure enough, I forgot I had paired my keyboard with my iPad and when I had it turned on it refused to pair to my new mac mini. Unpaired it from iPad and it popped up in bluetooth settings and successfully paired with the mac mini. Thanks!

So a couple of days ago, my Apple BT simply stopped working as I was typing something in Word. I tried changing the batteries, did not work. I tried to re-pair it and that worked fine, I could input the code and press Enter on my Apple BT keyboard and it would pair successfully but the keyboard is still not working. I then tried another set of fresh batteries, thinking the ones I put in were defective, but it didn’t work. I tried switching it off/on, it did not work. When I switch it on the light blinks (blink-blink pause blink-blink pause,…) for about 2-3 minutes and then it disappears.
Help please! I purchased the keyboard from Apple about a year ago and have always been super pleased with it. It was never abused, dropped, drowned or anything like that either, just chillin on my desk days after days.
Thanks for the tips!

My apple keyboard and trackpad stay connected to my laptop (running Yosemite) just fine when they stay in the same room, but after I take my laptop home for the night and bring it back the next morning, the computer fails to connect to either device until I reset both the keyboard and trackpad (i.e. delete the devices from the bluetooth control panel, remove the batteries from each one, then re-pair each one). It’s a huge pain to have to do this every morning when I come into the office. Have you had/solved the issue of a keyboard and trackpad needing to be reset on a near daily basis after taking your laptop out of the building?

It’s possible that the keyboard and trackpad have been paired with other devices in the place they reside. When you take the laptop home, they disconnect and become available for other paired devices to connect, which will prevent reconnection to the laptop when you return. Check carefully on all other nearby devices that they are not listed as paired.

Failing that, on the laptop, try a PRAM reset, and failing that, a SMC reset.

Hi— Thanks for the reply. Yes, I realize that them pairing with other computers is quite possible. The issue is that I work in a lab and there are tens of computers near by, some of which are used by people and some we only use to run simulations, making the checking difficult. I’ve tried the PRAM and SMC reset. Is there anyway to ease-drop on the device to see if it is paired? I could understand the trackpad pairing by accident, but it’s harder to figure out how the keyboard could miss-pair unless someone had intentionally used it with another computer. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks! I hadn’t unpaired from my other laptop (well out of range) and I had tried to go this through Keyboard > Set Up Bluetooth Keyboard, and it detected the keyboard and then lost connection.. when I did as you said through Bluetooth settings it worked perfectly. Thanks for the great tips!

Dave, I have a US iMac, and I’m in Mexico, where my extended Apple USB keyboard broke down. I could not find a Mac wireless keyboard to replace it, so bought a Microsoft one (wireless). However, although they say it works for Mac as well as PC, the keys would not work as indicated on the keyboard. For example, when I typed Shift 8, to get a left-hand bracket, I would instead get an asterisk. The left-hand bracket was on Shift 9 (which showed the right-hand bracket!). Other keys were different as well, but I was forced to re-learn them to be able to type correctly. Now, I have found and bought a brand-new Apple Wireless Keyboard, and have it paired to the Mac. Problem is, they keystrokes still work as the Microsoft keyboard did — incorrectly. How do I re-configure the Mac/keyboard so that when I type, the result is what I see on the keyboard?

Had the problem that the number keys wouldn’t get black during the pairing session. Turns out that even though they wouldn’t black they were still received by the MacBook. So I just typed the correct numbers (without getting any UI response) and hit enter and voila my keyboard is connected!

Yep, messed around for 20mins nothing. Tried the same process after turning it off and holding the power throughout. Worked like charm! I now know how to solve this when I see MANY others having the same frustration. Thanks!

Brilliant – At 2000 hits a month for your article, you would think someone at Apple would adjust their own described method for connecting. I have connected plenty of keyboards in the past (no problems) and not using your technique. But when I had trouble your system worked perfectly. Thank you. I like the way you spend the time helping other people with (only just) related issues

Thanks, following your instructions to pair my wireless keyboard worked like a charm. My Macbook Air doesn’t have a preferences option for blootooth settings but just turning bluetooth off and then on again and holding down the “on” switch on the wiresless keyboard did the trick. I prefer the wireless keyboard feel over the built in Macbook Air keyboard.

All I had to do…. is read your instructions…… “for a Mac… turn it off and turn it on” Worked like a charm. I just had to be reminded that Macs are designed to meet my needs as simple as possible. Thats why I have a MAC. 1% learning curve, 99% creative art happening!!!! When I first read something about a “Code” I wanted to die…. didn’t realize you were talking PC. I should have known! LOL. Thank you so much for giving us the answers to our problems. You are the hero of the day. I don’t have 5 hours to sit around and figure out codes, and such. Because…. I have a MAC PRO. Now…. I’ll get back to creating.
Donna
Fine Arts Instructor: Michael’s

Dave, I have a US iMac, and I’m in Mexico, where my extended Apple USB keyboard broke down. I could not find a Mac wireless keyboard to replace it, so bought a Microsoft one (wireless). However, although they say it works for Mac as well as PC, the keys would not work as indicated on the keyboard. For example, when I typed Shift 8, to get a left-hand bracket, I would instead get an asterisk. The left-hand bracket was on Shift 9 (which showed the right-hand bracket!). Other keys were different as well, but I was forced to re-learn them to be able to type correctly. Now, I have found and bought a brand-new Apple Wireless Keyboard, and have it paired to the Mac. Problem is, they keystrokes still work as the Microsoft keyboard did — incorrectly. How do I re-configure the Mac/keyboard so that when I type, the result is what I see on the keyboard?
Thanks for your help,

You need to set the OSX keyboard language to match what is physically laid out on the keyboard. US English and British English are the nearly the same but some of the symbol keys are in different places. No idea which Mexico uses. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources and add the appropriate language. Show the input source in the menu bar, and use that your toggle from one to another.

Howdy!
You’re the best! I was starting to think that the Bluetooth card of the Mac Pro 1.1 was definitely broken, or something else, I lose my time checking the cables of Antenna and nothing, type by Google a lot of bullshit, and fortunately you made this post! Thank you very much! My keyboard was saved with my Macbook and could not connect with other computers, I made this reset and exactly as you described! Perfect! Thanks a lot!!!
Otto

I have a MacBook Air, my wife an iMac, and recently I added a Mac mini to the ‘family.’ I borrowed the wife’s keyboard to use on the Mac mini (just to set it up for Screen Sharing and Remote Management via my MBA). When finished, I returned the keyboard to the wife and then the problems started.

The iMac could see her keyboard, but couldn’t pair. (Had a spare magic mouse, so didn’t get into trouble there–or did I, for her mouse wouldn’t pair, either.)

Too many BT devices in the house in various states of connectedness and pairing.

So I started researching. Found some terrible documentation on the internet, including an Apple manual for an Apple wireless keyboard (older model ??) showing the keyboard with THREE batteries instead of two! (see: http://bit.ly/1I1B56t)

Then I found this post: Deleted the keyboard from BT preferences on the Mac mini and got the keyboard working, again on the iMac.

So, thanks for the very informative post and the right information for hosting and managing a house full of Apple devices wanting/needing to connect via BT, correctly, and stay working.

Hey! I can’t read all the comments here but please tell me how you are supposed to click on anything if the mouse isn’t working!!! I don’t have spare keyboards or mice!! I am at my wits end. I moved my iMac from one room to another and mouse or keyboard won’t work.

You can normally navigate on the Mac using just a keyboard, but its a little tricky. Easiest thing is to borrow a USB mouse from a friend, or a cheap one from a computer store, usually less than $10, for just such emergencies.

When going through System Preferences, it could not find the wireless keyboard. Your instructions worked the very first time. Thanks so much. You saved me a ton of time trying to find the answer from Apple.

After a hard reboot, for unknown reasons my Bluetooth Apple keyboard was not recognized by my iMac. I struggled with it for a over an hour following Apple’s instructions. Searching for a solution, I found your post and it worked like a charm. I am grateful as it saved me a very time-consuming trip to the Apple store or the expense of a new keyboard! Thank you and happy travels.

You are a life-saver, Dave! In the past I’ve been able to correct keyboard connectivity issues by switching from rechargeable batteries to regular, and then more recently, replacing partially drained batteries with fresh, brand-new ones. But this time, after a full hour of having no luck with any of my tried-and-true solutions including restarting, I was getting ready to take my frustration out on my 4-month-old iMac with my bare fists. This, in turn, would have resulted in my own demise from a pummeling from my normally docile but tech-obsessed husband! Lucky for me, I was able to search for solutions on my iPad and came upon this page. Thank you so much for sharing this! You are a life-saver!

Very useful information but it does not address my problem. I was getting mad with my iMac when randomly it restarts itself. I thought a faulty HD I replaced it with a SSD. Still the same, I changed the RAM memory but still the same issue. My last attempt was removing the wireless keyboard for a wired one and ever since no more restarts. In conclusion, despite the fact I never had a problem pairing the wireless keyboard with my iMac, this change seems to work for me. I hope this helps somebody else because in my case I could not find any kernel panic message after those random restart. Thanks

Hi, my problem is that my Mac requires a password and i cant type because it doest not find the keyboard. Without entering the password, i cant go to bluetooth preferences. I cant do anything actually.

ugh Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me. I have the same problem as Luisa and some others — both wireless track pad and keyboard won’t connect to my iMac. so I can’t input my password. This began after my Internet went down because of cable provider. I used my iPhone as a hot spot because I work from home. After wifi was up again, I couldn’t use keyboard to enter my password.
( I have a wireless mouse that works. How? I have no idea.)
I followed your directions I read from my nearby Macbook.
The keyboard paired with it! LOL But not the iMac.
I’ll buy a USB keyboard tomorrow.
Thank you.

I just received a used keyboard from ebay. I try to pair it and it says unsuccessful. But it still shows the old computer (ellies keyboard) on it. Is there any way to delete or reset the keyboard? I tried the power button thing and it almost paired, but then said unsuccessful.

I had the same problem. My apple wireless keyboard suddenly stopped working. The battery was 100% full. According to the Bluetooth system preferences, the keyboard was connected, paired, and discoverable. Only two keys worked: the tab key and the delete key. I brought it in to the genius bar in Palo Alto. The genius tested it and found that it works well on his computer. He suggested it might be my bluetooth software. I brought it home and tried again. This time I noticed the following warning in the troubleshooting discussion (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3048):
“9. If the mouse keys feature in the Universal Access System Preferences pane is enabled, many of the keyboard keys may not respond as expected.” The resolution: In the Universal Access System Preferences, click on the Mouse tab. If “Mouse Keys” is “On,” turn it Off. It was on; I turned it off. Now it works. I have no idea how “Mouse Keys” was suddenly turned On.

Dave – thanks for the tip how to (re)pair my wireless keyboard with my ipad. Found your website through a Google search and so glad I did. I think it’s pretty cool that I can get technical support from you all the way out here in Colorado. Good luck with your travels and adventures.

As long as I have had my bluetooth keyboard, today all of a sudden I had an issue getting it to connect. Your post, though from a few years ago did the trick. Thanks so much for helping me get back to work!

I routinely encounter this problem approx every few months when the batteries run out in my keyboard. It then refuses to re-connect with my Macbook Pro.

One problem I found is your description of “removing” the keyboard with the ‘-‘ button in bluetooth preferences. This does not exist for me, I don’t understand. My keyboard is still being recognise in the devices in Bluetooth Preferences, and I don’t have a ‘-‘ button – only the chance to right click and click “Remove”. I do this and it continually keeps automatically popping up.

I do this and then turn it off/on a million times/hold down the button whilst trying to “Set Up Bluetooth Keyboard”.

I have got it to re-connect in the past, but have no idea how, just through a combination of clicking different buttons a million times/turning it off a million times. I am now completely frustrated and at a loss of how to fix it (yet again).

The presence of the ‘-‘ button depends on which version of OS X. In later versions, if you hover the mouse over the paired device in the list, and X in a circle appears, which allows you to delete the previously paired item.

Thanks Dave. Just in case anyone else encounters it, your method to resolve this seems to be sound, but actually never works with my Macbook pro unless I first restart my computer after having replaced the keybaord batteries. Somehow that seems to let the computer know to ‘lose’ the previous connection with the keyboard and enables it to find the keyboard again when I press “Set Up Bluetooth Keyboard” in system preferences.

Just purchased an Apple Magic Keyboard. Typing is great – BUT, none of the function keys work… Play, FF, RW, Volume buttons, nada… clicking them just makes a ‘bong’ sound on the laptop. So, started looking around for others having the same problem… can’t find much so far…

Found one post that might indicate whats going wrong. Show the input keyboard viewer, and a keyboard that looks like an apple keyboard shows up… Great. Then I type a single key, and that keyboard viewer changes into showing a keyboard with right hand number keys – 0-9 and so forth…. Thats all I have so far…. any thoughts???

I’ve tried to disconnect/remove the bluetooth keyboard from the computer multiple times. Tried to pair/connect using the lightning cable attached OR not attached… apple notes say to attach it first time with the cable connected… (sigh)…

If you go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard (Tab) there is an option to ‘Use all F1,F2 keys as standard function keys’. You need to have this disabled (unchecked) for the function keys to work as Play/Pause etc. Or hold Fn to toggle it on each use.

Hi Dave,
Hopefully you can answer my question. I am trying to connect (pair) a mac keyboard via bluetooth on a Mac OS X version 10.9.15. I have new batteries in the keyboard! In the screen that says “wait for a bluetooth keyboard to be discovered’ …. I end up waiting and waiting for the ‘code’ to appear so I can connect (pair) but it never happens…
Am I doing something wrong?
Look forward to hearing from you today hopefully.
Cheers

Maria, thanks. Sorry, I can’t think of anything else, the post is pretty comprehensive on problems with the Apple Keyboard. You could try connecting the keyboard to another computer (Mac/PC/iPad) to verify that it is working. Remember to remove the pairing if you do this, or it can lead to connectivity problems back on the original Mac.

the remote mouse won’t work after changing batteries. its not a magic mouse so there is no on-off switch. i can’t move the cursor on the computer with the arrows on the key board. can i install a different keyboard from an older mac that i have? thanks a lot

You aren’t able to move the cursor using the keyboard arrow keys anyway. Installing a different keyboard won’t help with resolving the problem with the mouse. I’ve just updated the article with some help on resetting the Bluetooth devices and controller, so you may want to see if that helps.

I did all you suggested and appear to have a pairing, or so it says.. However, the only action I am getting is the use of the “tab’ and “delete”. No other keyboard function is operating.
It sounds ridiculous but this is my first experience with this type of keyboard, model # A1314
I am in Australia.
Any ideas, Dave?

Dave, you are a genius. It worked. Interestingly the problem occurred after restarting following a power cut. I’ve had a Mac for close to 30 years, so I’m not usually this stumped. I had tried everything else. Thanks!

It may be needed to take out the batterys and insert newly, and on FIRST pressing adhere to No. 3 below.
Also my 2nd Mac constantly wanted to connect to the keyboard, the username is the same. So its valuable to watch both Macs.

Hi Dave
Love what you are doing?
You ever in Cornwall pop in for a coffee ….

I found no real solution to losing my bluetooth connection on my keyboard … Couldn’t get to settings or anything as keyboard not acknowledged at all… Tried lots with no luck then I tried jumpoing around the different accounts at log in …4 of them… the one least used accepted the keyboard then it started working on them all.
Probably just luck but worth a try.

Confused by your description of resetting mouse since you used keyboard example. Do you turn off keyboard to reset mouse? If not, is the mouse turned off? If so, how do you click on bluetooth for pairing?

No, don’t not turn off the keyboard. This trick only works on the mouse if it has a momentary power switch. Those with slide switches it won’t work on. The general advice regarding batteries and re-pairing still applies though.

Hi there, my kid was playing some game after which my keyboard has stopped functioning in normal way. Alaphabet and number keys are not working, shift and other function keys are working. Pressing few keys one can see the arrow on the screen sliding.
I uninstalled the game.
I re-paired the keyboard many times.
Replaced battries.
Called apple, they suggest there might be physical damage, which i doubt since some keys are working normal.
Do you suggest re-pairing with long press?

Hi – love your site – but don’t love my bluetooth problems!! 🙂
Hoping you can help me….
I’ve got an bluetooth mini apple keyboard (model A1314) that won’t connect to my 27″ Imac- Im running El Capitan 10.11 (my location is UK). Ive tried the power key hold-down – and also new batteries. There are no other bluetooth devices in range. The computer previously paired with the keyboard has been sold some time ago.
In Bluetooth preferences the keyboard is quickly discovered and the pairing code appears but it only lets me enter the first three digits (of the 6 digit pairing code) – when I come to type the fourth digit it freezes and then eventually times outs saying could not pair.
This has happened over and over again – Im about to give up!!
Thanks for your help x

Hi Dave,
on Apple Support someone gave a link to this site to repair the problem of the MAC bluetooth keyboard not working in Bootcamp Windows 7 or XP after upgrading to El Capitan. My keyboard works fine in OS and will also work in Windows XP safe mode but not in normal mode. Any ideas, please on how to fix this problem as you cannot log in to Windows without a keyboard?

I’m having exactly the same problem described above by Ray.
My keyboard works fine in OS but after upgrading to El Capitan a couple of days ago my keyboard will not work in bootcamped Windows 7.

I’m not having any luck finding an answer to my dilemma elsewhere, but am heartened to hear others are having the same problem. I have tried a little fiddling with the Bluetooth settings but hot having any luck.

Great Advise. had this frustration and my keyboard would be connected , but when I take my mac out and come back a few hours later it would not connect, till I read your blog. Holding down the power for 3 seconds and repaired the keyboard yo mac

This just worked for me when everything had failed. For me it was the pairing of my Magic Mouse which used to work then suddenly stopped working. I had a wired mouse so have been using that and meaning to get around to trying to reconnect my Magic Mouse. Tried with new batteries, 2 different “mice” and nothing worked until I unpaired my keyboard. WOW! THanks!

I have the opposite problem: My macbook thinks it has a connected bluetooth mouse, and so has disabled the clickers on the track pad. It also disables the clickers on a USB mouse. I’m quite willing to unpair everything. How do I select the bluetooth icon without a mouse?

Hi Dave,
Thanks SO much. This worked, and I was able to get my husband back in business with his iMac and its keyboard! Yay!
I had tried many other support suggestions, and no one mentioned holding the power button down.
By the way, his keyboard not connecting began right after we had a one-second power failure in our house.
Thanks again for clear instructions.

Hello, I have a magic mouse 2 that just bought with my Macbook pro retina 13 inch with El capitan. My mouse worked fine for like a week but one day just stop working. I assume that the battery was low and connected to the usb port of my mac and let it charge for all night but in the morning still nothing. When i enter to System preference > Bluetooth setting with the lightning cable connected it shows me the gestures and shows the mouse at 100% battery charge but when i disconnect it desapears.
I unpear it and wont been able to pear it since. I also try to pear it with my old pc and doesn’t work ether. please if you have some suggestion anything that can help.
thank you

HI, Dave. Suddenly my wIreless keyboard freak out and some keys aren’t workIng but It seems to be a software problem. When I press I key the shIft also actIvated and the the bracket on 8 key doesn’t work eIther. I’ve trIed all your trIcks but nothIng work. thanks for your help and sorry for my poor englIsh

Before I buy a usb keyboard to resolve the issue I wanted to check whether anyone has come across this:
my wireless keyboard used to be connected to my iMac. I switched off the iMac and now the keyboard does not connect. The magic mouse connects. However, I can’t log into the iMac. The keyboard has new batteries and it gets detected by my iPhone and macbook. They haven’t been paired and whilst attempting to connect to my iMac their bluetooth is turned off. There are no other devices in the vicinity.

I tried powering on and off and the keyboard does not appear on the iMac. Any thoughts other than buying a usb keyboard? Thanks for your help!

Thank you very much. It worked. Holding down the power button on my Apple trackpad brought on the device with instructions to pair. But that wasn’t enough! So I switched off the trackpad (holding button start button for more than 3 seconds). Then I held it down once again this time throughout the pairing process….and EUREKA it worked. I just wanted to say thank you.

Hi Dave,
It seems that most people are having good luck with the power button solution. Unfortunately it is not working for me. When I go to pair a keyboard, the passkey will pop up for about a second (before I can get a good look at it) and then it will go away and the menu will tell me the pairing was unsuccessful because the passkeys did not match. I have tried all the solutions you mentioned above and nothing is working! Any new ideas? Thanks!

The hard reset worked MAGIC! I cleaned my keyboard with a bit too much rubbing alcohol and it started acting like crazy. I thought I was doomed. Reset the keyboard/mouse/bluetooth to factory settings and BAMM!!!! Good as new. Apple is amazing and thanks for the help Dave!

My first attempt did not work, however after reading the additional instructions, I realized that my keyboard was pairing with another OS X device. Hint: if you use your keyboard for more than one device be sure to turn off your Bluetooth on one of the devices.
Thanks for your website

Thanks for the perfect information that I was searching for. My bluetooth keyboard started connecting to my mac (after holding the power on button for 3 seconds) and within a minute of reading your advice. Thanks!

There are three keys that don’t work, the period key does not work and the zero numeric and back slash keys BOTH work though only one of them is used I cannot send my e mail address since it requires the period key, using a comma instead, kvbops@gmail,com
Thanks, Bops

Bit late in the game maybe, Dave, but yes, you’ve probably saved my KYBD thanks!
Something else was wrong with it, but that can be worked around in OSX preferences.
Happy motoring!
BTW: Non-QWERTY users should know during pairing, the KYBD acts as QWERTY…

Thanks! This worked great for connecting my wireless keyboard to my new MacBook Air!
I have a Bluetooth number pad (“LMP” logo on the back) and haven’t been able to get it to connect yet – it has an on/off switch instead of a button that gets pressed down – but I’m going to try un-pairing it from my previous Mac, and I’ll change the batteries as well. Hopefully, one of those will work, and if not – I’ll just keep searching

Dave, you may or may not be a saint, whatever that is, but with regards to syncing problems with MAC keyboards, you are a friggin GENIUS!!!!!!! I spent 4+ hours on the phone today with Apple Tech Support folks, really senior Tech Support folks…and they had me jump through many hoops in an effort to solve my problem, to wit my keyboard would suddenly not ‘pair’ with my MAC.. We reinstalled El Capitan OS, we tried everything…and finally I gave up and ordered a wired keyboard, grumbling though the whole process… Then, I decided to check GOOGLE, and found YOU…and 5 minutes later my problem was solved!!
THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve tried all day to fix this problem. I followed Dave’s steps, and less than 30 seconds later, I’ve got my bluetooth keyboard working again – holding down the the power button was key. I’m now it using it to type this comment.

If the green light on your bluetooth keyboard blinks this does NOT mean your batteries are still good. After several minutes of scrambling to figure out why my keyboard stopped working, trying various arcane juju suggested by many well-meaning posters, and ignoring the “try new batteries advice” because the green light blinked to indicate it was discoverable, I reached an impasse. I finally relented and installed fresh batteries. The old batteries apparently had enough power to blink the light but did not have enough juice to make the full connection.

Thanks for your great advice. I had tried everything after my Bluetooth just stopped working on Yosemite, and managed to get the mouse working but not the keyboard. Holding the button finally did it and I’m very grateful to you!

Yet another happy badger. Tried the switching off and reboot trick and then spent a day swearing at the computer before I came across your marvellous and simple cure. But why can’t we get this from Apple? Absolutely nothing on its official sites or support at all.
Like Phil G said above: “I’ve tried all day to fix this problem. I followed Dave’s steps, and less than 30 seconds later, I’ve got my bluetooth keyboard working again – holding down the the power button was key. I’m now it using it to type this comment.”
Thank you very much indeed, Dave.

I followed the instructions and repeated the approach many times and still the keyboard wouldn’t connect. It would partially connect and then disconnect. it would semi-pair then drop connection – and a range of other things. I have changed the batteries time and time again thinking perhaps the batteries were dud. Finally i smacked the keyboard around a few times and lo and behold, it worked !!

Apple should implement a soft keyboard option at the password login screen so you could use the mouse to click out your password! I have been locked out of my mac mini as the Apple bluetooth keyboard and trackpad are ignored now because I was playing with new bluetooth devices in the same room. I bought a new Digitech AA2104 bluetooth transmitter/receiver to get audio out from the television audio out to my new bluetooth headset and that worked fine. Problem is it seems to have hijacked my apple bluetooth peripherals’ pairings and without getting past the login, I cannot cleanup my bluetooth pairings! A wired USB mouse was easy to find and the Mac Mini responds to that but a wired apple keyboard is harder to get my hands on. I had a still shrink wrapped extra apple bluetooth keyboard but that has not helped even though the neon indicated pairing attempts… any ideas?

I have read your bog but it does not seem to be the solution for me.. I have the new wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries. Only slider switch for on/off. Just a few keys on right side of keyboard do not work. Tried everything. Next thing is just to return to factory setting and start over again. My 5th day with problem.

I FINALLY figured out what was wrong with my Apple A1255 keyboard that I have used with my Mac Mini for years. Yesterday, it just stopped working. I couldn’t get it to pair with the Mini or any other device, including an iPad Mini and my son’s Mac Mini (although there was one device I ignored in this process, which turned out to be the problem). I reset, restarted, deleted, and was ready to order a new keyboard and right before giving up, I saw in the comments above to make sure the keyboard wasn’t paired with any other device. Finally had a lightbulb moment and checked the dinosaur iPad sitting on the counter and sure enough the keyboard had connected to that! Now everything is back to normal! Be sure to check all devices for this, especially if the light on the keyboard won’t blink when you’re trying to pair it!

I’ve tried everything! I have a new wiped clean computer ready to be registered iMac wireless keyboard, put new batteries in mouse and can’t even get past the first step to register by the keyboard won’t work,mono thing, not even numbers, I’ve tried shift option Bluetooth keys and all other combos and nothing. There is no power switch on the keyboard, so not sure what you are talking about. I need help.

Just a tip, you might still run into issue after holding the power button on the keyboard for a few seconds. Even though you get the blinking green light it might still pair with a different device or wahtever.

To get around that you can literally KEEP holding the power button and then in the Bluetooth menu of your machine pair it, whilst still holding down the power button of the keyboard. This is the only way to prevent it from automatically pairing with devices.

Dave, the Apple bluetooth keyboard started dropping its connected. I removed it. Repaired it. I’ve done this several times. Then the keyboard was “seen” by my laptop, but couldn’t pair. Then I removed it again to repair, and now it cannot even been “seen”. Further, the green light doesn’t blink the way it used to when turned on. Yes, put in fresh batteries. Yes, went through the steps here. Is the keyboard just dead?

Resetting the Bluetooth module and restarting, then holding down the power button (I wasn’t taking any chances) finally allowed my Apple Wireless Keyboard to pair. Which is odd, because it didn’t pair on another Mac as well. Regardless, thanks!

Oh, and by the way, there is a “Factory reset all connected Apple devices” item under that Debug menu. So technically, there is a way to reset them. However, all it does that I can tell is un-pair and reset the name of anything currently connected. Which doesn’t help if you can’t connect.

Dave, after many searches for how to pair an Apple wireless keyboard for solutions which were no help at all—I found your website. Your informative discussion and easy to follow step-by-step instructions worked perfectly! Thank you.

I have found that 99% of the time, there is another previously paired device that has connected immediately after turning on the keyboard. The solution is 1) to turn OFF all other pairable devices in the area or 2), if you have a laptop, physically carry the laptop and keyboard together away from other devices. When the Apple bluetooth keyboard can only see the desired computer available for pairing, it becomes very easy. It’s nearly impossible to force the apple keyboard to UNPAIR from a device by using the power button or batteries because the previously paired device receives priority. The release of the pairing has to occur from the computer, not from the keyboard. (BTW, I just did this and am now using the keyboard that would not pair previously.)

Thanks very much for the helpful information. I have an iMac 2014 model with the bluetooth keyboard. It stopped working yesterday around the same time my iMac gave a message that my USB external data stick was ejected – although it was still in situ.
I’ve tried all of these fixes and it will allow me to pair and for my apple keyboard to type the pass key. However, after this, when I type on the keyboard, it won’t display any characters. Very weird and frustrating.
I’d appreciate any ideas anyone has. I bought a wired usb keyboard and am reticent to adjust USB settings in case there’s an issue with this and I lose that connectivity with the wired keyboard and mouse.

In my case issue occurred after old batteried died out. Replaced with new batteries however, then it would not pair up as it usually does when changing.

From this point I had a hard time figuring out how exactly to make the keyboard discoverable – so nothing was found and I could not enter login credentials to do more.

Holding the power button did not work. It was only when at the login screen – after clicking my user that I accidiently tried to tab random keys on the keyboard that discovery mode was triggered ( blinking green diode). From this point my Mac Mini was able to spot the keyboard and I could pair it up.

Just purchased a Mac mini. I ordered the mouse & keyboard from Amazon – – the older ones that use AA batteries, which I actually prefer to the new rechargeable ones. So I figured I would set up the mini using the mouse & keyboard from my Mac… No problem with the mouse BUT no keyboard connect. Your wonderful article reminded me that the keyboard is still paired to the Mac in the next room . Boy do I feel dumb!!

Ok, let’s see if anyone has any ideas here…my wireless Mac keyboard stopped working – well 6 keys stopped working. Called Apple to troubleshoot. They had me turn the computer off. Then I had to put in my password to get back into the computer when turned back on. Only I can’t because the keys I need for my password are among the ones that no longer work. Friend gave me loaner keyboard – but it’s wireless, so no way to sync to computer. Is my only option to buy a $$ Mac plug in keyboard?

Thank you so much Dave, I have not been able to find this information anywhere and have been going crackers since a power cut upset the bluetooth a few days ago.
This works PERFECTLY!! It’s brilliantly explained & yes hold that button down constantly.
Thanks a million!!

Hi Dave, thank you for this article! This article was written a few years ago, so the reason behind me having to change the procedure slightly could be due to OS X changing over the years. I use OS X El Capitan.
First of all, I had to remove the Keyboard from the list of connected devices in ‘Bluetooth’ settings. I tried everything that comes next before disconnecting the keyboard, and it didn’t work. Then what I did was go to ‘Keyboard’ settings, and clicked ‘Set up Bluetooth Keyboard.’ After that, I performed step 1, followed by steps 4-7. Then it was connected again.

A saver, so now I can type again… Thank you for having exposed the idiosyncrasies of the so-called user friendliness of the Mac cult as quite witfully well described by Umberto Eco t in one of the early chapters of his novel Foucault’s Pendulum.
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from a lot time my wireless k. does’t work… all the keyboard keys does’t work. I try yor trik and MIRACLE now I can press the numbers keys to write the passcode bluetooth…. BUT THE ENTER BUTTON DOES NOT WORK!!!!!! ubeliveble

I changed my batteries 2-3x on my wireless apple keyboard. My imac kept saying batteries were low. Finally I went out today to buy a fresh pair of batteries to be sure they were good. My iMac is set at the sign in page, so I cant sign in without my keyboard working. The green light comes on the keyboard but I cant type on the screen. My mouse works fine. How can I re-pair the keyboard to my iMac?

After a brief power outage, I started up my iMac and got a message that it could not find a bluetooth keyboard. The message never goes a way, which means nothing can be accessed on the computer. With no hope of success, I turned off the keyboard then held down the power button. In less than 5 seconds, it connected. Thanks a lot.

I am unable to log in therefore I can’t access the menu bar. The Bluetooth Setup Assistant window has popped up telling me that my keyboard is not connected. I have changed the batteries so I know that is not the problem.

I have an Apple Magic Keyboard, and just got a new MacBook Pro, and had no problems connecting using your tips. I always refer to this blog post whenever I have trouble with my keyboard, and it’s always worked. Thank you!!

What a great trick- it seems to have worked for so many, but as in Murphy’s law, not for me.

I am using a MacBook pro OS 10.13.3 trying to connect an A1314 keyboard (two batteries). The Bluetooth app can see the keyboard with its name, but when connecting to it and trying to enter the code on the laptop there is no response from the keyboard. Bluetooth “app” on the MacBook (for lack of a better word) shows the option to connect, but it doesn’t work, when I try.

I kept on pushing the on/off same results. Then I went and option shifted and rest the bluetooth module, then used the trick. Repeated entire process after rebooting. What is weird is that while at first the keyboard appeared with a name say namex, now its name is namex1, but again no change, it won’t let me enter the numerics.

At least it is not a matter of the bluetooth module. I am at the same time connecting a mouse, and this seems to stoically go through the on/oifs and all the travails I subjected the bluetooth module and always find its place.

After several years working fine I suddenly had the problem that my magic keyboard would not connect. tried everything (or what I thought was everything) and was about to go buy another keyboard when I came across your tip which worked like a charm. Thank You!!
When I see how many people have had this problem and how long it has been going on and yet Apple seem to have done NOTHING to address it, it make me wonder whether this is deliberate. I wonder how many people have gone and bought a new keyboard unnecessarily! After batterygate we have keyboardgate 🙂

Thanks I nappreciate ver would have thought of looking at other devices in the area and I already spent ages changing batteries and doing the same thing over and over . What a relief thanks so much I appreciate it!

I have a brand new Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad that is misbehaving. It is moody about showing up in the Bluetooth menu. Your instructions above do not apply as Apple has gotten rid of the old power button that you held down and replaced it with a (much cheaper I’d bet) tiny switch that is colored green when it’s in the on position. So there is absolutely nothing to hold down. I’ve only had it for about two weeks and I’m pretty frustrated. I have a Matias Bluetooth keyboard from macsales.com that has never given me a problem. Additionally, it can connect to four devices at once and with the push of a button it disconnects from one and connects to the other. Seems like something obvious that clearly wasn’t too difficult to implement. So I can type on my Mac Pro, my MacBook or even my iPhone from the same keyboard without having to touch any of them. So why did I spend the cash on the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad? Because I’m doing a lot of typing and the Matias, which looks like an Apple keyboard doesn’t type like one. The keys feel flimsy and I feel like I don’t type as well on it as a result. However, I’m typing on it now because Apple can’t get their act together…

Whoops, I just found a link that explains you can pair the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad by plugging in the lightning cable to the keyboard (usually used to recharge the keyboard) and the USB side to the computer. Tried it and it worked… So no holding down keys or holding down buttons for this new model, simply plug it in, it pairs and then you unplug it and it remains paired. I do not have a magic mouse or trackpad with lightning cable recharge port so i can’t verify whether this works for all of their newer models but it’s worth a shot…

Thank you! Thank you! Totally worked for me. Finally found your solution to pairing my bluetooth keyboard to MacBook Air. I had not been able to get it to work. So simple but so happy it works! Appreciate the tip.

I’m using an Apple Wireless Keyboard 2011 (I’m pretty sure). I’m pairing it to a Macbook Pro. Sometimes I find that the keyboard is just not connected, even though it was before. I think the main issue is that the keyboard doesn’t want to stay on while re-pairing. I change the batteries but the problem persists.

Following the above instructions did work, but after three tries. I think it just has to line up with the few seconds that the keyboard will stay on. When I say “stay on” I’m going by the little green light that turns on briefly. I’m not sure that’s a good indicator, since the light is off when the keyboard /is/ working!

I was having issues with connecting my 2011 wireless Apple Keyboard to a Macbook Pro. I kept getting the “cannot connect to your keyboard” when trying to pair. I read this guide and held down the power button on the keyboard throughout the entire process it worked! Thanks!

I have a 2009 Apple Wireless Keyboard, with the “y” key failing. I tried this and the pairing worked (with the prompt to enter numbers) but now the left shift key and none of the “qwerty” keys work, although all the others do. I am using fresh rechargeable batteries and have not had any connection issues. However, it seems these keyboards are flawed and break easily, although the reason – and whether they’re repairable – is unclear: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1347715

Everything was working fine, until I change the batteries in the keyboard. Then Windows lost the pairing and could not reconnect – the KB simply would not appear. No amount of rebooting, re-connecting would work, with or without holding down the power button on the KB.

I looked in Device Manager and noted that the “Bluetooth Enumerator” had a warning triangle next to it. I disabled/renabled it and rebooted. After rebooting, it was fine. So I went back into Bluetooth pairing. I’ve never had to hold the power button on the KB before, so I just long-pressed until the light started flashing and then released it. Windows recognised the device and paired with it.

Apple wireless keyboard 2011.
Stopped working for no apparent reason. On my own, turning keyboard off, deleting it from the list of bluetooth devices, turning it back on did not work. Mac recognized the keyboard but would not connect.

Using the advice posted here, holding down the power button throughout the procedure, was a quick success.

I kept trying and it would ask for the passcode then spin and say fail. I held the on button as you stated and then finally it connected and showed the battery level, then I entered the code and it worked. THANK YOU

THANKYOU!!!!! I was going crazy for an hour. Then I tried the first thing you suggested which was to hold down the power button all the time while pressing connect bluetooth keyboard. Almost immediately the numbers came up and I was back in business!!! OMG thankyou yes it worked!!!

Well, guess what, it worked, but only after a few tries. You might mention that the light on the keyboard is supposed to blink when holding that button in, otherwise it has been inadvertently switched off instead of on !! (I think that is what happened the first couple of times, anyway.) I also first had to “remove” the keyboard from the list…..

Does not work for my A1314 keyboard wich I bought at craiglist. The keyboard is recognized by my macbook air, 6 digit keypass is seen and can be entered one by one when highlighted but when I press Enter to finish nothing happens (failed connection with yellow triangle). The same result on 5 IOS devices (ipad, 2 imacs, iphone 6).
The batteries (Duracell not rechargable) are new and work on 3 other A1314 keyboards bought together with the failed one without any tricks.

Thanks a million. Spilt a glass of wine on the bluetooth keyboard. I sprayed it liberally with alcohol cleaner and replaced the batteries . Left it to drain on side away for batteries. Then did your repairing trick holding in power key. Thank you so much.

Super helpful. Thank you! Even Apple didn’t suggest the holding the ‘on’ button. Still hyper sensitive, but now I can see it again, turning down the tracking speed has helped. (New Macbook Air 2017 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 using first generation Magic Trackpad)

Dude, you saved me another 100 bugs! I disassembled mine, cleaned it after a battery leakage and then I thought I broke it during that, because I had connection issues all the time. I’ve read your article until the point where you write about the interferences from phones and WLAN-stuff and then there came the brainwave:
the problem was at my wrist: I wear my AppleWatch on the right hand and I am right handed too. So I turned on planemode on my AppleWatch and the Magic Mouse worked perfectly!!!

Worked perfectly on my A1314 BT keyboard. It just up and stopped working in the middle of a task, and after 30 minutes of damn near losing my mind over that random glitch, I found this page. am now typing this comment using the kyboard 🙂 many thanks

Dave,
Thank you, your solution worked. I had to try a couple of times, holding down the power button all the time, and I push some of the keyboard keys too while in the connecting mode. In the end, it worked.

Thank you! My keyboard randomly quit working and none of the normal resets worked. I used your tips about resetting the firmware and “voilà” it I was prompted for the keycode and now it works. You ROCK!

I have an older Mac mini 2006 OS 10.5.8 with an early model Apple blue tooth keyboard that could not be discovered. I held the keyboard power button continuously as I awakened my mini from sleep mode. It worked. The keyboard was discoverable and paired immediately. Thank you.

You could try turning the keyboard off, then on again, to see if that prompts it to connect. Is there any chance you’ve paired the keyboard to another device? Is so, delete the pairing on that device or that might prevent the iMac from seeing the keyboard. Worst case, borrow/buy a USB keyboard (any will work) and plug that in so that you can login, then remove the keyboard pairing on the iMac and re-pair it.

Thank you, Dave, for starting this article and keeping it going! My issue with my MacBook Pro (MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)) not connecting with the Magic Keyboard (purchased summer 2011) seems to have been a previously paired device. As soon as I removed the magic keyboard from my old desktop computer (iMac), it paired just fine with the new Macbook. Am unable to verify if the steps with holding power button down etc really helped here or if the unpairing of old device alone did the trick.

Apple needs to up their game with troubleshooting instructions at least when they charge $100 for a keyboard.

Thank you! You saved my life. This worked for me after deleting a keyboard because it wouldn’t connect to bluetooth (yes, it was the older keyboard). Then, it disappeared. But the holding down trick worked. It didn’t pair on the first attempt. But I was persistent. Finally a pairing code came up and I was in the keyboard business again.

Wow, it worked! I only spend about 2 hours fooling with mine. The 6 seconds is the secret. Thanks!! It seems like the paper manual or official support should show that without so much searching around.

Hi, my problem is I cannot get any keyboard to work with my iMac. USB, or Bluetooth, and yes these keyboard do work with my other iMac. The problem being I cannot get into my computer with out typing in my password and of course with out a working keyboard I cannot do that, and I cannot fix it if I cannot get into my computer.

I am trying to set up my newIiMac A1224, but the Sumvision Paradox V wireless keyboard has become unresponsive. What should l do.I was also having problems in typing the @ character from this keyboard. What combination of keys can l use to get this character.gGer

This worked for me today. My keyboard was not working. It wouldn’t pair with it. But when I followed the steps above, for holding down then power whilst “pair” on the bluetooth settings it worked, came up with a series of numbers to type in on the keyboard (whilst I continued to press the power) then enter and it paired and is now working again just fine! Thanks so much!

Cheers mate! if we just followed the instructions on support.apple.com we should buy a new one. they don t mention this procedure but they give you totally useless instructions to finally say that maybe the keyboard has to be substituted. thanks a lot

Thank you for providing the information here. I’m using an A1255 keyboard, and holding down the power button just powers off the keyboard. I’m in an office, so I have 25+ computers and that many iPhones and iPads to check. SOLUTION: Press the volume up button until you hear one of the other Macs beeping. Worked like charm!

Many thanks!! This post was the first Pairing instruction I’ve found that states you need to keep the keyboard power button pressed through the process, until the Pairing Code prompt. I had been going nuts trying to pair it up and see it find, then lose my keyboard over and over again.

This was helpful, but I think my keyboard needed to be “unpaired” from the other device. I turned bluetooth off on the other device, and then this worked. You might want to remind people to do that before starting your procedures.